If you have an Android smartphone, it’s quite likely that it’s a dual SIM model. And if you are a WhatsApp user too, you might have wanted to use dual WhatsApp accounts to augment your dual SIM experience.
Even if you don’t use a dual SIM phone, you might still want to use two different WhatsApp accounts simultaneously — for instance, one for your friends & family, and another for your colleagues at the office. Unfortunately, WhatsApp has got other plans, and as of now, it only lets you register a single account per device at a time.
Luckily though, there is a tweaked version of WhatsApp available for Android devices, known as GBWhatsApp, which can be installed alongside the official version of WhatsApp. That way, you can register and use your secondary phone number with GBWhatsApp, while continuing to use your primary number with the official WhatsApp app on the same device.
Since GBWhatsApp isn’t an official release, the app isn’t available on the Google Play Store. But you can get it from one of the several third-party Android app repositories. Once you get the appropriate APK file, you can sideload it to your Android device.
- On your Android smartphone, go to Settings >> About phone and tap on the Build Number 7 times to enable Developer Options, if not already done.
- Ensure that installation from “Unknown Sources” is enabled in Developer Options.
- Download GBWhatsApp APK file from a trusted APK repository.
- Transfer it to your Android smartphone via USB.
- Tap on the APK on your phone to run the package installer, and follow the steps to complete the installation process.
- Once installed, launch the app and register on WhatsApp using your secondary phone number.
Note: You need two different phone numbers to log into two separate WhatsApp accounts, on official WhatsApp and GBWhatsApp, installed on the same device.
Let us know what you think about this workaround, in the comments below.